Community Summit gives guidance to nonprofits

Lucky’s Market, along with the Longmont Community Foundation and the Longmont Chamber of Commerce, hosted a community summit at the Xilinx Summit Retreat Building on Friday, August 22^nd. The event was a huge success, with approximately 80 local non-profits attending. The focus was to learn new ways to grow their expertise and positive impact and influence within the Longmont, Colo., community.

"We were thrilled with today’s turnout,” said John Bwarie, Director of Community Impact for Lucky’s Market. “To have so many people come together and develop solutions for the issues that face this community was incredibly powerful and inspiring.” 

A special presentation was given by Dan Harris, a member of the Wells Fargo Philanthropic Services Team, entitled “Storytelling for Success.” His speech explored the importance of storytelling in the non-profit world, and its essential importance to an organization’s ability to create change. Beneficial tools and resources were presented to the non-profits to help face challenges and inspire ideas for their own ways to tell their stories and serve the community.

During the summit, participants were split into 10 groups. Each set was asked to develop a pilot program that identified a local Longmont issue and present a strategy for making a measurable impact on the issue. The teams worked together to pitch their ideas and were judged by a panel of experts. Those who met the stated criteria for storytelling was awarded a $500 grant from Lucky’s Market with the intent to “seed” the group’s pilot program.

Among the winning project ideas were:

Altogether, the summit was a day of community engagement, growth and sharing that provided these critical non-profits, who serve the Longmont community so well, additional tools and experience necessary to grow their organizations for the benefit of those they serve. It was also the genesis of several new ideas intended to provide support for the community at large.

"When you bring all these different groups together, you are reminded how so many of us are working towards the same goal of bettering our community,” said Karla Hale, Executive Director of Longmont Meals on Wheels. "Today was great because we gained new skills and developed relationships with other organizations that we can turn to for partnership and support."

About Lucky’s Market
Lucky’s Market was started in 2003 by two chefs, Trish and Bo Sharon, when they bought a convenience store in Boulder, Colo. The Sharons shared a vision of creating a grocery store where food lovers like themselves would want to shop, with quality products sold at affordable prices with genuine personal service. Today, those goals are the hallmarks of the Lucky’s style. For more information on Lucky’s Market, go to www.luckysmarket.com.